Dynamics
by lovelydangerousdear
Summary: They don't point out the change in their relationship and they ignore those that do. They've never had time for the obvious anyway. Valduggery.


**Nothing is mine. **

A quiet week or so passes after Mr. Sult leaves and the indecent with Argeddion is finally over with, but tensions are still high. The pressure on Ravel, and Ghastly increases ten-fold, and Valkyrie makes it her priority to keep her head-and Skulduggery's- down; she pushes for smaller more simple cases, and follows all the Sanctuary rules.

At first, the change is nice. Valkyrie finishes a case, goes home to her family, acts normal and sees Skulduggery after a few hours, but just a few more days, and Valkyrie's sure she's never felt more mundane in her life. It's boring, all this sleeping, eating regularly and limited time with misses him, and even when she tells herself she'll see him again soon it's never enough.

It's the middle of the night, and she's cozily curled up under her covers, but her back aches for the curved seat of the Bentley, late night coffee, and pointless stake outs with Skulduggery.

And then her phone startles her with a buzz.

Skulduggery.

She sticks her arm out and grabs it, only to be surprised with a text instead of a call.

She puts her phone back down, and rolls over.

Half an hour later she's still wide awake and Skulduggery appears tapping on her window; Valkyrie throws him her worst glower, trying hard not to smile as she wiggles out of bed taking her sheets with her.

"What do you want?" She asks propping open the window. She shivers at the blast of chilly air that immediately seeps in.

"Besides the respect of my apprentice?"

"Well you're never getting that, and I'm not your apprentice remember? I'm 'more like your combat accessory.'"

"Oh yes...I did say that once didn't I?" Skulduggery tilts his head and pauses "well at least you still hang on my every word."

Valkyrie laughs, adjusting her blankets and takes in his appearance. He's wearing a dark grey suit, with a black vest and a cobalt tie, all impeccable tailored, and all out of place.

"Is it new?" She wonders aloud.

"Hm?"

"Your suit. Is it new?"

"Ah," he glances down, straightens his tie, then stands and gives a twirl. "Yes. How does it look?"

Valkyrie laughs again. "Dead sexiest skeleton I've ever seen."

Skulduggery drops back down to a crouch and tilts his head again. "Seen many of us then, have you?"

Valkyrie grins and clasps her covers tightly in her left hand reaching out with her right to straighten his collar. "Of course," she winks "though most of the don't wear quite so many clothes."

Skulduggery sighs sadly. "Unfortunately, Valkyrie, the title of 'best dressed skeleton' can only go to one, and that's me."

Silence settles between them, and Valkyrie shifts her weighs from on leg to the other.

"So why are you here then?"

"So, I have to have a reason?"

"I'm going to close the window."

"I'll just come in then."

"You'd never go into a lady's room uninvited."

"True," he concedes after a time, "but then why haven't you invited me in?"

Valkyrie shrugs, "Because you haven't told me why you're here."

He nods at this. "Alright. I'm here to take you somewhere."

"And where would that be?"

"Just somewhere." Skulduggery takes another considering pause-he's been doing that a lot tonight, Valkyrie frowns- "I want to show you something, come with me."

She nods. "Alright just let me get dressed."

"You won't need to. It's nice out, your night clothes and a jumper should be alright. I'll bring you home before your parents are up."

"Yes, that'd be all find and dandy," Valkyrie chews her lip, "if I were wearing any night clothes."

"Oh. So you're..."

"Just down to my underwear yes."

"Ah," Skulduggery says, and then for no apparent reason he clears his non-existent throat and turns away so she can pull on some shorts and a jumper.

Dressed, and slightly excited, Valkyrie moves to her window trying to spot the Bentley.

"Are you ready?"

Valkyrie blinks as her partner pulls her out the window and to her feet.

"Where's the Bentley?"

"I left it where I was before."

"Why?"

Skulduggery scoops her up, "Because this was faster."

And the take off into the sky, soaring higher and faster than ever before and making the excitement in Valkyrie's belly bubble with adrenaline. The chill and wind cuts down to her bones, and she laughs as they break the clouds.

They fly, and fly and fly, until the wind becomes almost rhythmic, and the blood rushes through Valkyrie's ears. She falls asleep somewhere along the way, dreaming of holding the moon in her hands. Skulduggery doesn't even notice until he descends and the landing startles her into a groggy half-awake coherency.

"I fell asleep." She says, yawning into his shoulder.

"I noticed," he lies, setting her down gently.

The Bentley gleams, silhouetted in moonlight just a short distance away from them, but he ignores it, and walks down into an old ditch; Valkyrie follows, falling next to him, once he settles on a spot to sit. The grass here is long, and itching,the air is cold and the wild-flowers are scraggly, even in the moon light, but Valkyries doesn't complain, as she stretches, staring unabashedly at him.

The silence between them has lasted too long he realizes, she must be getting worried; that would explain her fidgeting.

"This is the last place I went before I died. It was my last mission." He says suddenly, and realizes how it must sound when she doesn't respond.

"The dead men, we were all here- well those of us still alive that is- and we had orders to lead and ambush against Mevolent's men. We were successful. Then after Serpine killed me this is where he burned my body."

Silence chokes the two of them and he starts to worry. It's too much, he thinks, even for her; this is too much of his past to heave onto her shoulder's-

"Are you ok?" Valkyrie asks softly, and he snaps his head to her. It's dark and hard to see the details of her face but he can feel the intensity of her eyes on him.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You tell me." When he fails to respond Valkyrie continues, "It's just that...well you never speak about your past. I mean the Dead Men sure, and your wife and child sure, but those are things everyone knows, this... this feels more like a secret or... a forgotten detail or something."

He's surprised that she's read that far into him. "It's never been forgotten for me Valkyrie."

He feels her go stiff, and hear the shift of the grass as she rolls onto her back. He wonders if she'll apologize-

"I wanted to punch her." Valkyrie says. "Fletcher's new girlfriend Myra that is. At first I wanted to punch her. I don't anymore but..."

She lets the sentence drop before it becomes any more redundant. "Then I wanted to punch Fletcher. I couldn't believe he'd found someone before I had, I'm pretty sure that as the person breaking off the relationship I was supposed to find someone new first."

Skulduggery sits back.

"It made me feel bad at first. I felt...I dunno discarded. I mean I know that I was a horrible girlfriend-"

"No you weren't, he's just too much of an idiot, even for you."

Valkyrie tries to haphazardly smack him, but can't quite reach. "I was, though I cheated on him. Never mind the whole vampire thing, cheating on anyone is bad. I shouldn't have done that."

"Hindsight bias." Skulduggery interjects, trying to steer her away from the topic though he can't be sure why. "It's a psychological phenomenon-"

"And then I realized," Valkyrie says louder, speaking over him. "That I didn't need him anyway. There's no room for him anyway, not with you around."

He's not entirely sure what she's talking about as she loosely laces their fingers together.

"Leave it to a dead man to kill my metaphorical life." She laughs. "We're best mates, you an' me. And I need you, and you need me, simple as that. Anyone else is just...furniture in our lives."

Valkyrie yawns. "And I'm happy with that. Saving the world? Adventures? Magic? I don't really need any of it, not when you're around."

Skulduggery doesn't even know what to say at this point, but he supposed that's fine because Valkyrie had fallen asleep again. He listens to her breathe for a long time, trying to remember the way it felt to breath himself, then wraps her in his suit jacket when the dew condenses and begins wet her clothes and skin. When the sun peaks at the horizon he scoops her up and flies her home, tucking her in, and 'forgetting' to reclaim his suit jacket as her flies back to the field and drives the Bentley for hours until he feels less confused.

About an hour before he finally rings Valkyrie about a new case she wakes up, walks to her calendar and marks 'August 15th S.P. D-day' her birthday is less than a week away, she mentally notes, then dresses and takes Skulduggery's coat to the best cleaner's she knows.

When he comes to pick her up she hands him the prepaid ticket and finds a piping hot coffee waiting for her in the cup-holder. She mocks him, and he teases her. Neither of them point out the changes that follows -she walks a little closer to him, he lets his hand linger on hers- and the purposely ignore the others that do.

They've never had much time for the obvious anyway.


End file.
